Godzilla Rising
by DR Studios
Summary: In 1954, the United States tested one of the largest nuclear bombs they had created.  In 1976, over 80 ships have gone missing in the Pacific.  In the late 90's, only fragmented evidence of the thing's existence had surfaced.  Now, HE will rise.


The world is a mysterious place.

In the four and a half billion years since its formation from space dust and meteor amalgamation, species have came, went, and evolved. Changing with the environment and even extraterrestrial impacts. The evolution and rise of humanity in the last ten million years has altered the course of the planet even more. Tribal cultures splintering, migrating, setting up the cradle of civilization and spreading to every corner of the world. A belief that all of the earth was man's to control and use as they wanted drove them onward. Of course, meetings between different people, often, lead to the same outcome: War.

War is at the same time a simple, yet complex subject. The war for one's own survival is a simple and primal instinct. At the same time, a war for resources and expansion due to differences in politics is complex in its many dealings. The more groups of people involved, the more complex the matter. As wars drag on, there comes a need for a technological advantage over ones enemies. A simple concept of 'destroy them before they destroy us.' While simplistic, it is also senseless.

Arrows and spears pierced through fur and hide. Armor deflected as swords clashed. Guns exploded with fire and metal, cutting down lines of men. Firearms became the main choice of weapon of advanced countries. Gases and poisons were used as well, but frowned upon because of their indiscriminate killing power. More guns, more tanks, planes, larger explosions to cut through the enemy lines. Despite this, larger weapons of mass destruction were needed. Demanded to bring wars to an end quickly without wasting their own soldiers in the process.

Thus it came to be.

The most devastating weapon known to man was created: the atomic bomb. A power so frightening even the scientists involved had to question their own involvement in damning the world. Leaders and politicians championed their accomplishments, and set out to use them against their enemies. It was devastating.

Thousands of innocent lives were extinguished in seconds, others were left to wander through the rubble of their city. Burnt, disheveled, dying slow deaths. For the users of this weapon, once wasn't enough, and so they used it a second time. The results were the same, all in the name of protecting their own. This action ended a great war.

But forever damned the human race.

The Pacific Ocean. The largest section of ocean in the world. Covering over 60 million square miles of the planet and home to some of its deepest recesses. Discoveries are continually made when studying the depths and more remains to be seen. Technology is limited to diving deep and far, leaving one to compare what we know about the surface of the moon, to our knowledge about the bottom of the ocean, and what dwells there. Species long thought to be mere myth, now brought into the light of science is just a fraction of what wondrous and strange creatures exist at the bottom of this expanse.

Along the deep trenches in the south Pacific, next to the outcrops of ancient rocks and sediment something rested. It's a curious thing to consider that this creature, so far removed from its age could have survived the ravages of time in prime condition. Even here, on the bottom of the ocean it sleeps peacefully. Ignorant of the ravages the planet has undergone in the last several hundred years. The storms of nature and man do not stir the beast from its slumber. Ocean life either clung to it as they did the rocks, or swam by ignoring it as if it wasn't there.

Does it dream? Psychologists from the older school of thought would have said no, that animals lack the basic functions for higher thought like problem solving and dreams. That one could fool a dog during a game of catch is more a matter of the dog's own intelligence rather than the trust and excitement the canine had for playing with its owner.

The creature does dream, in its extended state of sleep. It dreams of a world lush with green, vibrant and pulsing with life. Where its kind were rulers of all, top predators that could hunt the forests and the oceans for the most elusive of prey and dangerous of adversaries. It remembers fire, panicked wing beats above, ash falling, retreating to the ocean with its kind and sleeping. An ageless sleep in the deep waters. Things had changed when it awakened, new creatures had replaced its saurian cousins. Warm-blooded creatures with lines of fat to protect them from the ocean's cold. Mating and trying to raise a family in the changed world. Its mind mixed all of these images together, vibrant thoughts and past experiences that were mixed together in tapestries that only it could understand.

_ba-dump_

It started to stir, a long sleep interrupted by the body's natural chemistry. Torpor giving way to action. Body systems turning on, slowly, after centuries of inactivity. Blood pumping, oxygen flowing. Subconscious muscles starting to activate, stomach demanding food, wastes requiring to be expelled. Internal systems beginning the slow road to activity while it laid among the rocks, immobile. A silent, unseen leviathan hidden under countless centuries of dust and rock.

_Ba-dump_

The heart was the first to show signs of activity. If one could wait long enough, the beats would have been separated by days, if not months. So slow was the metabolism, so slow did the body systems work that such an ability allowed the creature's kind to survive major extinctions by simply sleeping. Sleeping for years, centuries at a time. Blood rushed forward deprived of oxygen but still filtering around enough reminiscent oxygen that the creature's brain would not die. The heart was able to shunt as much oxygen-rich blood to the vital organs while the creature slept. While in this hibernation state, such demand for oxygen was not high.

_BA-dump_

A wave of bio-electric impulses washed through the creature after the heart began to beat faster. The stomach was aching for food, running off of fat reserves for too long. Lungs starving for fresh air, not the slowly filtered salt water that came through the nose. Muscles strained as they started to receive more blood, years of inactivity making them stiff. Intestines initiating the process for digestion and removal of all vital nutrients from any food still left in the system.

The dreams stopped.

_BA-DUMP_

Now the body started to stir. Laying on it's stomach, half buried in sand and muck. Ancient silt was disturbed as scales and muscles twitched. The first signs of life in what was disregarded as a rock formation along the ocean bottom. Muscles in the forearms contracted the clawed hands, pawing at the sediment and leaving lazy grooves. The neck started to rock back and forth, dust pillowing off of the grooved scales, falling from the hooded eyes.

It was waking up. Slowly.

The heart beat faster as it continued to stir, displacing ancient dust and sediment that had covered it for so many years. Body rocking back and forth, the arms reaching for a handhold and pushing itself up. More sediment fell from the body as it rose up. Rows of dorsal spines shook as the back twisted from the strain of standing up after so long. Joints popped, echoing in the crevasse where it had slept. New scents in the ocean, new sensations. It recognized some, others were alien. It didn't care.

Tired growls escaped its throat. A deep rumbling through the ocean depths. The body rising as sore legs stood the body upright. It was still sleepy, the body slow to react. Amber colored eyes opened, groggy after the long inactivity. Pupils dilated, blinking away the sleep. The salt water didn't sting its eyes, an adaptation to its aquatic life.

Tilting, the head pointed towards the surface, hundreds of feet above. The light was low, but it could sense the direction. Its lungs burned for fresh air, tired of the tease as water was filtered through its nose. Legs crouched as a massive tail curled and snapped, sending the creature upwards at an incredible pace. Water rushed over the scales, slipping through the dorsal spines as the body undulated left and right. The creature's main propulsion was its long and massive tail.

It demanded air, its lungs burned and ached. The body undulated faster, forcing it upward. Eyes narrowed as it felt the change in water pressure. A sliver of light was above, compelling it onward through the darkness.

A bulge formed under the southern Pacific Ocean in the early morning. It continued to rise, until the surface tension broke, bellowing out with a reverberating roar before crashing through its own wake. Lungs took in fresh air, then exhaled again. Snorting out its nostrils, as its head spread the waves.

The ocean waves slapped hard against its dark scales. A reminder of the change in temperature between the water and the morning air. There were different scents on the wind. Thicker, heavier reminding the beast of smoke and fire. It didn't like it. The head turned around, unsure of where land was. The planet's magnetic poles had changed, throwing its senses off. Tilting the head back and forth, looking over the oceanic horizon as it floated along the surface. Fresh air in its lungs increasing the body's buoyancy.

Was it alone? It didn't know. Certainly others of its kind had awakened. It was not always the first to awake, but never the last from this sleep of ages. Inhaling a deep breath it let out a roar, calling out to its brethren. The sound echoed across the waves as it listened, eyes scanning the surface of the ocean.

It waited.

The dawn had yet to break in the east, and still no response. Time is an abstract and strange concept to the animal. Days were measured, due to the rotation of the earth and the sun moving across the sky. Even rare conceptions such as _yesterday_ were registered in its mind. Rarely did it consider tomorrow.

It lived in the present. In the instant. The _now_.

But the now came too late. Its roar came back unanswered. So it roared again, a longing call, higher pitched than before. The sound was a screech, a wail.

Of sadness, the creature knew. It was alone, for now.

It swam lazily through the water, only its wedge shaped head and jagged dorsal spines breaking the water's surface. Through the wind and waves, it tried to listen, straining its ears for an answering roar, a wail that it could respond to. Nothing. Turning, it was preparing to dive again, to hunt, when a bright flash illuminated its back.

Its head spun around, as the flash of light that made the sun seem dim. A radiant flash that caused the creature to close his eyes against its intensity. Eyes blinked and pupils contracted, the blast of light leaving after-images behind its eyelids. It growled in confusion before it looked again.

Gone was the light, but now, rising from the source was fire and smoke, pillowing into the sky. The sight was strange, but nothing prepared it for the shock wave that rolled across the waves, slamming into it. Taking it off balance as waves rolled it under the surface. Fighting for orientation, it broke the surface again, roaring in challenge to whatever caused the attack. What answered it was a loud thunder, with such force it shook its bones and vibrated in its lungs. The creature let out a squeal of confusion as its lungs seemed to pulse from the sound. Throbbing after the thunder.

It caught it's breath and looked to where the fire and smoke was rising. The light had started like the sun looked, a round shape and bright with light. Now it was floating into the air, the round shape distorted and imploding in on itself the higher it went into the sky.

The creature snorted. Looking to the east, light at the early morning. The sun itself hadn't risen yet. Then to the growing cloud. It would avoid this confusing thing that was brighter than the sun and rose with fume and flame into the sky. Now it was hungry, it must feed.

Filling its lungs with air, the beast from the past dove under the water again. It's presence erased by the rolling waves.

Hours passed by, and yet the creature had no concept of such an abstract thing. It was hunting, smelling the waves, searching for a meal. Something to fill it's demanding stomach. If it wanted to survive, it needed to eat. Even if it didn't have the strength yet to hunt, there was always something that could be scavenged.

That is when he caught the taste. The familiar scent of flesh in the water. The taste was aged, partly rotten and decomposed, but it did not care. It would feed.

Eyes scanned the darkness and saw movement in the shaded waters. Even as the day dawned, light was low. It would see, and it would eat.

It recognized the scent and taste of fat, a special kind of fat it had tasted many times before this last slumber. Rich in energy, sufficient to hunt. Nearing the source, it saw the presence of the oceans other predators: sharks.

The creature knew sharks. It had battled with them many times when it was smaller, and at its current size it could eat one. These sharks, however, were different. They were large, with dual coloration between their dorsal and bottom halves, with the bottom half a bright white. Comparing size, the sharks were nearly half as long as the creature was. It would need to be careful in its approach.

Oblivious to the approaching creature, the sharks continued to feed on the fat-rich mammal carcass. Their actions were sluggish with their bellies so full. Arousal came next, as males and females continued to gorge themselves on what pieces they could rip off, turning the water into a soupy haze of blood, flesh, and fat. All while preparing themselves for their secretive mating rituals.

The beast circled the mammal remains. Recalling the feel of sinking its teeth into flesh, ripping tendon and breaking bone. It also remembered the pain as sharks had bit it in the past. Its competition were sluggish, slow to act. They could not stand up to it.

A crack of the tail and the leviathan rushed in. Clawed hands grabbing onto the remains of the carcass before its heavily muscled jaws clamped down. It tasted the meat, pugnant with some decomposition. The fat, full of energy that would guarantee its survival. Large teeth dug in like a shovel, before ripping a chunk off and swallowing it whole. Feeling the flesh slide down its gullet invited a feeding frenzy from the creature, as it bit and tore flesh from the remains of the carcass.

It was oblivious, as younger sharks started to circle around. They had waited for their meal, the first for some in months while the older sharks filled their bellies. The large creature would not deny them their sustenance. Even if it would become their prey now.

Pain brought the leviathan back from his hunger frenzy. The body turned as it felt dozens of triangular, serrated, teeth bite down on its flank. Smaller sharks, not as big as the others, had drawn first blood. It would not allow a second attack. Despite the creature's size, it was maneuverable underwater. Its body curled and a hand slashed through the water, connecting with a shark that smelled of the beast's own blood. Claws raked across the side of the shark, catching fast and yanking it through the liquid against its will. Blood spilled from the wound, as more sharks started to circle the creature and the wounded shark.

Two smaller ones started to descend upon the injured shark, the spasms of the body ringing forth like a dinner bell. It felt the water shift around him, as three more sharks circled in, searching for the source of its blood, and its weakness. There would be none today. It would survive.

One of the sharks got in close, and tried to turn away. The decision was too late as the beast's jaws clamped down on the tail end of the shark and bit down. Sharp teeth tore through the denticle'd hide of the shark and severed the spine. It swallowed the tail as the newly injured shark struggled to swim, its main propulsion gone. The beast was unrelenting as it tore into any shark that got too close, even as they were attacking those it had injured. It was in a survival frenzy, attacking anything that it considered a threat. Clawing, biting, shredding, it decimated the sharks that tried to attack it, out of hunger or curiosity.

There was no inhalation, no prepared burst for what the creature did next. Nostrils flared as it forced out a concoction of chemicals through its throat and out of its mouth. Fire met water in a combustion chemical reaction that tore hydrogen from oxygen, creating a shock wave of bubbles and heat through the water.

Sharks scattered away from the thrashing behemoth, as the blood of their kind was now permeating the water. It snorted, bubbles escaping from the nostrils, before it went back to feeding on the remains. Chunks of flesh disappearing down its gullet as jaws bit down again. Nothing was left of the carcass save for bones and a small amount of flesh that remained, sinking down to the bottom of the ocean. Small scavenging fish started darting through the cloud of blood, flesh, and fat, picking up their share while the creature ignored them.

It swam away from the descending remains. Satiated for the moment. Pain registered from where the shark had bit, but the injury was beginning to heal. Awake again, it had to explore its new surroundings, where land was, where the rest of its kind had gone. The spine undulating left and right, a wave that traveled along the body and propelling it through the water mostly by tail. There was a change in the water, the creature could smell and taste ash around him. Charred flakes were in the water now, and it didn't know how long they had been there.

What more, its back was starting to get warm. Energy seemed to be drawing through the spines on its back, just as if it they were facing the sun's rays. It was strange, the sun's light was dimmed, even though dawn was hours past. Yet the feeling washing through it was similar. Confused, it looked up to the surface of the ocean.

Silhouetted against the dim light, where the scent of ash was getting stronger, was a strange silhouette. It wasn't a fish, wasn't a shark, but was much larger than it was. The taste of fish blood fell from it, mixed with that of earth and other tastes that left its teeth tingling with an unpleasant feeling. Watching, the creature observed the surface thing's movements as it went straight, then stopped, before starting to follow. It was unsure if the new thing was food, or a threat.

It would find out.

The leviathan approached cautiously. Many times it had awoken, and new forms of life had replaced those it came to know. It had hunted creatures the size of this new object, this strange new thing. However, it was unsure what it was. There was no heartbeat, just a loud deep set of of thumps that echoed in the water. No fin or tail, just whirling structures at the bottom. There was no scent from it, no skin, waste, blood, nothing that set it apart. The body was so straight, it hardly moved. Surely it was unlike anything it had seen before.

It circled closer to the strange object. Keeping its distance at first, but the object wasn't responding to it. Was it just not aware of the beast's presence? It's approach was careful, methodical, even as heat and energy rushed through the spines to the rest of the body. The increase in energy, plus the creature's own predatory nature was making it more aggressive than normal. Deciding to get closer and test this new object, the creature swam by and scraped it with its dorsal spines, just under the back half.

A horrid sound met its ears, and the sensation that ran through its spines as a strong tingling sensation that started to register as pain. It roared in confusion. The thing at the surface had armor, a very strong kind of armor, but if afraid or aware of the creature, it didn't show it. Confused and angered, the leviathan was going to leave this thing alone, until it caught the scent of fish.

Its head turned down, towards the scent. Being lifted by a tendril of some sort, was a strange container filled with fish. The creature looked at it in puzzlement. It was still hungry. Swimming down, following it, its jaws clasped around the strange object with fish. The new object was harder than rock and smooth on the tongue, biting down as hard as it could. There was the strain of the container as it thrashed its head back and forth, trying to break it.

The leviathan's efforts were being resisted as the tendril pulled it closer to the surface. With a tenacity born of hunger and testosterone, the creature held on as long as it could, pulling back until the container with the fish was broken free, being pulled up to the surface of the waves. Tuna that had managed to escape were snapped at, a few caught in its mouth before it turned its attention back to the strange thing on the surface.

No change, it continued to sit there as it rolled with the waves.

Now the creature decided to surface, examine this thing closer. Its head broke the surface and it snorted, looking at the object. Fine ash was falling everywhere, covering the surface of the ocean, the object, and the leviathan. The spines on its back were gathering more and more heat, even though the sun was obscured by wide-ranging clouds.

The object, while it was slightly rounded on the bottom, was flattened in places on the top with strange structures protruding from it, straight into the sky. Running along the top of the flattened areas, and seemingly coming from inside it, were much smaller things, running on two legs. These were animals, the creature could tell. Strange scents of smoke, fish, and the sea wafted from them into its nostrils. They smelled like the object they rode, but also different.

It roared at them, getting closer.

Clawed hands tried to grasp at the object's hide, but found little to latch onto. The creature used it for bracing as its head leaned over and looked onto the surface of this strange thing. It could smell fish, lots of fish and it snorted as it looked for the meal. There was a sound of thunder, followed immediately by a searing pain in its neck. It had been attacked, but didn't see the attacker. Just one of the smaller creatures pointing something at it. Others had started to get poles with sharpened edges, and more thunderous things. Half a dozen stings pierced through its hide before it roared and pushed off from the object, sinking down. This prey was confusing, but it was getting more agitated with the heat gathering in the spines.

It would not be scared off so easily.

Ash turned the top of the ocean into a soupy consistency as it continued to rain down. The creature swam around the object. Slamming into it at certain points, but unable to do more than dent its hide. It surfaced again, this time with enough force to grab onto the edge with its hands and hold itself. Roaring at the small things on the object even as they pierced its hide with loud weapons. Rage was burning in the creatures heart, almost as much as the pain along its back as the spines took in more energy.

The beast was thrashing as it tried to hang on. Swiping with claw and fang, attempting to get through the small creatures that stood between it and the fish. It would kill every one if it stood in its way. It's mouth opened as it tried to bite down, a sharp pain from inside its mouth caused it to rear back and roar its discomfort. Teeth broke through wood of the pole that was stuck into its mouth. Raw rage was boiling in its heart, it would kill every one of these creatures for the pain it was going through. Starting to haul its bulk out of the ocean and onto the object, refusing to be denied even as weapons pierced through its hide and the smaller creatures tried to fight back. The ash covered the flat areas, even clinging to the smaller beings. Turning their dark hair white, and clinging to the thin hides.

Energy crackled along the leviathan's spines, unleashing as blue lightning and causing it to rear back in pain. It roared to the heavens as the intake of energy seemed to come from everywhere, starting to burn its body. Roaring through its bones, cramping its muscles, and setting his internal organs on fire.

The spines continued to glow, brighter and brighter, almost as bright as the blinding light it witnessed earlier. It could feel and hear the cracking and snapping of its bones, as they broke, grew, mended, and broke again. Skin and muscle was ripped as the skeleton itself was the first to change, followed slowly as the muscle and scale started to regenerate, crawling over the exposed bone. The creature doubled over in pain, its hold thrown off by the pain rushing through its body like lightning. Its eyes glared at the small creatures as they started stepping back in fear at what was happening to it.

They did this.

These small creatures with their unnatural weapons were doing this to it. It was dying, pain racking through its body. Blood and flesh shredded off as its skeleton grew, braking through skin, mending, shredding again. It roared of rage and pain, lifting an arm back. It would sink this object, send it and the small creatures to the bottom of the ocean, where it would eat them before it died itself.

It reached its arm back, but the attack never came. Intense pain, stronger that before, caught it off guard, cramping the muscles in its back, falling off the object and back into the water. The beast thrashed around in the waves, pain flowing through every nerve, every cell. There was no reprieve as its spines glowed with raw energy, drawing it in from the ash floating and falling everywhere.

Even in its thrashing, it saw the object with the small creatures moving away, churning the water in their wake. It roared at them, at the small creatures that somehow caused this. The roar was full of rage and pain as the beast struggled to lift its head above the waves. A new wave of pain cut its roar short as it started to sink under the ocean surface, the bright glow from its dorsal spines all the indication that it was there and slowly fading.

It sank, dropping through the water column. Struggling against the pain, the restriction, the feeling of its own body breaking down and regrowing from raw energy surrounding it. The energy saturated the sea, the water. There was no escape for it, no way to stop its own body from absorbing all the energy surrounding it. It sank, continuing to thrash about in rage and confusion. Pain saturated its very being it was all it knew.

Its dorsal spines were glowing bright, illuminating the deep. The pain was so great, despite its efforts to fight back against an enemy it could no longer see but would never forget. Finally, after so long, the creature lost consciousness, a protective measure from the brain activating. The leviathan passed out, a deep sleep that wasn't interrupted, even as its body went through a destructive transmutation. Its body being broken, remade, healing, broken again. A destructive chain of death and rebirth, transforming it into something new.

Sinking into the depths of the ocean, the creature was unconscious.

Even as it hit the silty bottom of an ageless sea.

Even as the light from its dorsal fins finally faded, encasing it in darkness.

On March 1st, 1954, the United States military conducted the latest test of Operation Castle. The purpose of the tests was to design a thermonuclear weapon that could be delivered by aircraft. On the north-western edge of Bikini Atoll, Castle Bravo was detonated at 6:45 in the morning. Due to a miscalculation involving lithium-7, the detonation was 15 megatons. Over two times the theorized yield.

Prior to the test, the Untied States had issued a danger zone, based upon previous tests, to avoid endangering human lives. However, with the extent of Castle Bravo and the weather, the danger zone was too small. A Japanese tuna fishing boat was unknowingly caught within the effect area. The boat, _Daigo Fukury__ū__ Maru _(Lucky Dragon no. 5), had set off from Yaizu in late January for a two month fishing trip before it would return. In the morning of March 1st, the 23 crew saw a flash of light, similar to the sun in the west, followed by the sound of a large explosion only eight minutes later.

It would be several hours, before a fine white ash started to descend upon the fishing boat. Calcite coral reefs, that made up the Marshal Islands, had been vaporized and rained down on the ocean like a fine white powder. The ash stuck to everything, hair, clothes, skin. The crew didn't know what to make of the powder, and several even kept some as souvenirs and slept with samples in small glass jars under their pillows. Unbeknownst to the crew, the coral had absorbed high amounts of radioactive fission particles from the detonation.

When the crew eventually returned to Japan, the crew was suffering from varying degrees of radiation sickness and over 100 contaminated tuna had been distributed to the Japanese markets. The event caused a wide-spread backlash to the dangers of nuclear weapons, testing, and the danger of radioactive fallout. Relations between Japan and America had been strained, with the U.S, paying out two million dollars in compensation to the Japanese people for damages.

On September 23, 1954 the chief radio operator of the _Daigo_ died. Aikichi Kuboyama, left the following words: "I pray that I am the last victim of an atomic or hydrogen bomb."

Through the years, only several of the original crew live to the present day. After all the time has passed, there has been one thing they haven't spoken of. Sworn to secrecy for fear of being thought mad. The crew has never spoken of what else they witnessed on the day the ash fell. Of a prehistoric creature rising from the depths, attacking the boat and crew, before its body started to transform and dropped into the ocean as a thrashing, wounded animal.

The animal survived its ordeal. Pain was gone, but it had transformed into something more. Larger, stronger, a fire raging inside its heart within the still ocean bottom. Stirring in its sleep.

A miracle of nature.

Transformed by technology.

Unleashed by hubris.

The world, would never be the same again.


End file.
